US President Donald Trump unveiled his new Board of Peace at Davos on Thursday, casting himself again as a global peacemaker despite widespread scepticism over a plan that aims to rewrite the world order.
Trump officials also unveiled ambitious plans for a “New Gaza” during the ceremony at the World Economic Forum, with the US leader describing the devastated Palestinian territory as “great real estate.”
Trump later met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, with both leaders describing their talks as good and the US leader saying Russia’s nearly four-year-old war with Kyiv “has to end”.
The Board of Peace was created after Trump expressed frustration at failing to win the Nobel Peace Prize and ramped up his accusations that the United Nations had failed to resolve a host of international conflicts.
“Well this is exciting,” Trump said as he was joined on stage by leaders and officials from 19 countries to sign the board’s founding charter in the Swiss ski resort.
“This board has the chance to be one of the most consequential bodies ever created,” he said.
The Board of Peace, of which Trump is the chairman, was initially designed to oversee the Gaza truce and the reconstruction of the strip after the war between Hamas and Israel.
But its purpose has since morphed into resolving all sorts of international conflicts, sparking concerns that the US president wants to create a rival to the UN.
Countries have been asked to pay $1 billion for permanent membership of the board.
And the invitation for Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country invaded Ukraine in 2022, has sparked controversy.
Gaza ‘master plan’
Key US allies including France and Britain have expressed doubts, with London saying Thursday it would not attend the ceremony.
Trump told the gathering of the global elite in the Swiss mountain resorts that the organisation would work “in conjunction” with the United Nations.
A large part of the ceremony was devoted to talking about its plans for shattered Gaza.
Gaza’s newly appointed administrator said in a video message that the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip will reopen in both directions next week.
Then Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, like the president a former property developer, showed slides of what he billed as a “master plan” for Gaza’s reconstruction.
The slides included maps of new settlements in the Gaza Strip and artist renderings of gleaming seafront hotels and apartments under the caption “New Gaza”.
“It could be a hope. It could be a destination,” Kushner said.
Trump told Hamas to disarm under the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire accord or it would be the “end of them”. He added that he was ready to “talk” with regional foe Iran.
‘Not so popular’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces an International Criminal Court arrest warrant over the Gaza war, had said he would join, but was not at the ceremony.
The representatives of the 19 countries on stage with Trump included two close populist allies, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Argentine President Javier Milei, and officials from a host of Middle Eastern monarchies keen to curry favour.
Trump joked that they were “in most cases very popular leaders, some cases not so popular”.
“That’s the way it goes in life,” he said.
He said he expected around 50 countries to join, but the full extent of the board’s membership remains unclear.
Egypt said President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi had accepted Trump’s invitation to join, but he was not on stage.
Trump said Putin had also agreed to join, though the Russian leader said he was still studying the invite.
Zelensky has also been invited, but has said that he could not envisage working alongside arch-foe Putin.
Trump said Thursday he was hopeful of a deal soon to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — which he admits he thought would be the easiest conflict to resolve but has proved the hardest.
Zelensky told the World Economic Forum that documents being drafted with Washington to end the war were “nearly, nearly ready”.
While Zelensky said his meeting with Trump was “positive”, the Ukrainian leader conceded that dialogue with the US president was “not simple”.
Zelensky has voiced fears that Trump’s push to seize Greenland — which dominated Davos on Wednesday — could divert focus away from Russia’s invasion.
Tensions over Greenland eased, however, after Trump announced a “framework of a future deal” over the Danish territory and dropped his threat to hit European allies with new tariffs.
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